So, what does God do with your sin? He throws it behind his back, drowns it in the sea, treads it underfoot, blots it out, forgets it, removes it, covers it, takes it away, cancels it, washes it, and forgives it. And God can do and will do all of this in the present because... Continue Reading

Jesus is our hope because only he accomplished what we could not do. He lived a perfect righteous life. He bore the weight of our sins upon the cross, suffered, and died. As the perfect Son of God, he defeated death and rose triumphantly from the grave. He proved in his life, death, and resurrection... Continue Reading

“To hold up the glory of the temple while ignoring the commands of the God who dwells there, is akin to pagan idolatry (see the discussion of 1 Sam 15:23 here). It is to turn a blessing of the Lord into a talisman, to turn a sacrament into empty ritualism.”   The New York Times columnist... Continue Reading

We are reminded in Scripture that the Holy Spirit is the means by which sin is to be put to death. John Owen, in his helpful treatment on the mortification of sin, writes, “A man may easier see without eyes, speak without a tongue, than truly mortify one sin without the Spirit.” Therefore, it follows that... Continue Reading

“In short, the Bible teaches that God made us male or female, and no matter our own feelings or confusion, we should act in accordance with the biological reality of God’s good design. Transgenderism falls short of the glory of God and is not the way to walk in obedience to Christ.”   Some would... Continue Reading

For some, definite atonement is a ‘grim doctrine’ (Karl Barth), containing ‘horrible blasphemies’ (John Wesley); for others, it is a ‘textless doctrine’ (Broughton Knox), arrived at by logic rather than by a straightforward reading of the Scriptures (RT Kendall).   1. Definite atonement is a way of speaking about the intent and nature of Christ’s... Continue Reading

In effect, we are content with a halfhearted devotion to Christ. Our hearts are turned away from Christ and toward false idols we think will satisfy a parched soul. The secret to Paul’s contentment in all circumstances, whether he had plenty or had little, was that his heart was fixed on Christ. “I can do all... Continue Reading

This principle protects us from false doctrine. When we come to difficult passages we go with the whole teaching of Scripture on the subject. For instance, verses like Philippians 2:12 “work out your salvation with fear and trembling” are used by cults to teach a works based salvation. But the principle of Doctrinal (or Theological)... Continue Reading

The theological truth of this is that when we read our Bibles from Old through the New Testaments, we are reading the story of one God, one Savior, one means of salvation through faith, and therefore one people despite their chronological, geographical, and racial differences.   For many of us who have discovered the Reformed... Continue Reading

To summarize this rather complicated  survey, the basic meaning of the word is to, or towards. Sometimes, if the context and the verb used are hostile, “against” would be a proper meaning. But this does not mean that we can pick and choose whatever meaning we want. “Contrary to”, in the context of Genesis 3:16... Continue Reading